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We’ve given our readers an overview of educational choice programs across the nation this week with rankings based oneligibility andparticipation. But one major question still remains: How well are these programs funded?

The best educational choice policies make as many children as possible eligible to participate, but also empower participants to truly afford their chosen educational options. Here, we’ll rank the nation’s educational choice programs by purchasing power based on the data in the 2017 edition of The ABCs of School Choice. Last year’s rankings are in parentheses following each program name; however, changes may be just as much due to changes in public school funding as they are program funding.

To rank programs by purchasing power, we don’t look at the actual or average dollar amount of funding. Instead, we compare each program’s most recent per-pupil spending to the state’s (or D.C.’s) most recent average per-pupil spending in public schools. For context, we’ve also given the actual dollar amount for each program’s average per-pupil spending. If you’d like to see more program data or data updated after this post, please make sure to visit our School Choice in America data dashboard.

The top six programs in the list actually have per-pupil spending amounts that are higher than public school per-pupil spending in their jurisdictions. This is because all but one of these programs serve primarily or exclusively students with special needs, who tend to receive more educational funding in public schools, as well. We compare the average funding amounts for these programs to the average funding for the entire student body in local public schools. This may be one of the reasons why of the 16 highest ranked programs all but three primarily or exclusively serve students with special needs. Per-pupil spending averages for public school students with special needs are not available.

Director of State Research and Special Projects, EdChoice

Andrew D. Catt is the director of state research and special projects for EdChoice. He conducts analyses on private school choice programs and conducts surveys of private school leaders and parents of school-aged children.